Chapter 3. Starting the Administrator - mbpadmin

The command for starting the Administrator is mbpadmin, whose syntax is given below.

mbpadmin [-hs] [-cpci_card_no] [-Cpci_params] [-ddebug flags]
[-maddr] [-nname] [-Nnumber] [-ppoll_period] [-Ppriority]
[-r[1|2]] [-R[1|2]] [-ttick size] [&]

[Note]

There should be no spaces between the option letter and its value for any of these options.

The options are as follows:

-cpci_card_no

Map to the nth PCI ModbusPlus card found (starting at 0).

[Important]

Although technically this is an option, you must use it for PCI cards, even if you are using only one card. mbpadmin won't start correctly in PCI mode without this option being specified.

-Cpci_params

Specify the PCI card indentification in the form: Vendor,Device[,Subvendor[,Subsystem]], all in hexadecimal. For example: -C166e,30c1,166e,30c1.

-ddebug_flags

In hexadecimal: 1 bit per class of trace output, as shown in the table below. The default is 0.

FlagTrace
0x01watchdog - trace the periodic activity which keeps the peer processor from crashing
0x02receive - trace the receipt of messages from client tasks
0x04task death - trace the receipt of task death messages (QNX4 and Linux)
0x08general - display general error messages
0x10service - trace host service request bit
0x20peer message - trace receipt of messages on one of the 16 Modbus Plus data paths
0x40flow 1 - trace function flow control
0x80flow 2 - trace function flow control
-h

Help; displays a help message, with content similar to this page.

-maddr

The base address of shared RAM in hex for an ISA card. The default is d000.

[Important]

Although this is an option, it is important to have the correct address for ISA cards, even if you are using only one card. mbpadmin won't start correctly in ISA mode without this option being specified correctly.

-nname

The name to register with name server. The default is mbpadmin.

-Nnumber

The Modbus Plus node number to use for a PCI card, in the range of 1 to 64. The default is 1.

-ppoll_period

The minimum time in msec between checking for service requests on comm paths. The default is 100.

-Ppriority

Set the mbpadmin's priority. The default is 24.

-r[1|2]

Use type 1 or type 2 register addressing. The default is to let the system choose automatically.

-R[1|2]

Use type 1 or type 2 register bit assignments. The default is to let the system choose automatically.

-s

Use silent mode, which suppresses the copyright message.

-ttick_size

The size of a tick in msec as set by the slice command. The default is 50. (This option is only relevant in QNX 4. It is kept for compatibility in QNX 6 and Linux.)

&

The SA85 Driver runs in the foreground to facilitate initial testing and configuration. Once you are satisfied with your configuration, you can use the & directive at the end of the command line to tell the operating system to run the program in the background, and so detach from the command console.